Promises
by Nephemina
Summary: Finnick and Annie's relationship has been built up on promises. Ones that were kept or, more often, broken. But as Annie enters a world that Finnick never wanted her to see only one promise really remains. Finnick's promise to do everything he can to bring her back. But is everything enough?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, I'm a massive fan of The Hunger Games and the Annie/Finnick relationship so I thought it was only fair that my first Fanfic was about them. This is a story about Annie's games through Finnicks eyes.**

**Enjoy.**

**P.S. Italics indicate a flashback.**

**P.P.S I don't own The Hunger Games.**

* * *

Chapter 1

I hate this day. I hate it as much as I did as a child.

For many people today is a promise of death. It is the beginning of the end of two lives.

I'm sitting on the left side of the stage staring down at the children penned in with lengths of rope like animals. I try not to look down at the faces. I know that by the end of the day I will be teaching two of them how to survive the Hunger Games.

Not that winning is any better than losing.

I wish I'd lost, I wish I wasn't here today to lead two more children to their deaths, but there is no point wishing. The cold, hard truth is that within a month at least one of the children in this square will be dead.

For the two children who are chosen they know that their fate is almost certain. They will not come home to their family.

I comb through the crowd looking for a friend. I find her near the back of the girl's section, hiding away. I catch her eye and she smiles confidently back at me but I see in her eyes that she's scared. She's probably being brave for the little ones. It's an unspoken agreement that you act like the Reaping is nothing scary, nothing to worry about so that the youngest children aren't scared. It's frightening enough without a group of eighteen year olds cowering in a corner.

I remember my first year. It was horrible.

"_There you go Finnick." My father says. He's kneeling down in front of me doing up the final buttons of my shirt. I'm wearing my best clothes consisting of black trousers and a clean white shirt. My hair is combed instead of the usual which is whatever it looks like when I wake up._

_My father takes my hand and leads me from my room to the front door; on the way we pass my mother who is clutching a small piece of cloth._

_She hates the Games and can hardly watch them. She can't really accept the fact that I'm eligible to go in. I remember the tiny birthday cake that she made for me this year. It had just eleven tiny fishes around the edge, not twelve._

_My father leads me to the main town. It's quite a long walk and me feet get tired quickly._

"_Come on Finnick; not long now." He says._

_When we reach the square in front of the Justice Building there are lots of children there. My father pulls me to the side and kneels down, holding my shoulders._

"_You need to sign in now so join one of the lines over there" he says pointing at the children queuing in front of desks with Peacekeepers sitting behind them. "They'll take a little blood then tell you where to go. If they don't, just try to find the rest of the boys who are your age." He kisses my forehead. "You'll be fine. I promise."_

_I head over to the closest line. By the time I get to the front I have forgotten almost everything that my father had told me except his last words. "You'll be fine. I promise."_

_The Peacekeeper takes some blood and directs me over to the left section, near the front where a group of young boys stand. I don't see anyone I know in the vast sea of faces so I look to find my father. He's waiting with the rest of the parents and when he sees me he gives me a small wave and smile. He has his arm around my mother's waist. She doesn't see me though. She is staring blankly at the stage where the Mayor is standing. I try to get her attention but my father shake his head._

_I look up at the Mayor. He looks intimidating. Suddenly I feel scared, really scared. I can hardly breathe as he reads a list of previous victims, victors. I meant victors._

_After a boring speech from him an even scarier woman comes on. She is wearing a turquoise jacket and skirt with a bright pink shirt. It hurts my eyes just looking at her. She has bright pink lips and her eyes are the same bright shade._

_She also makes a speech about courage, bravery and pride before she goes to the first glass bowl filled with white slips of paper._

_I know that they always pick girls first but I'm still worried. I can feel the sweat dripping down my neck._

"_Maria Cerina" The lady calls._

_Everyone turns to find the girl as she walks towards the stage confidently. She doesn't look scared at all._

_The lady then moves towards the second bowl. I can feel the presence of every body around me. I feel sick._

"_Finn-" the lady begins to say. It's me, I knew it would be. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I begin to back away further into the crowd. I'm not going up there. I won't._

"_I volunteer" Someone calls from the crowd._

_I take a deep breath. I don't know if I the lady was about to say my name but I know what volunteering is and I know that it means the person who was originally called doesn't have to go._

_I'm safe, for another year at least._

The Mayor finishes his speech and the District 4 escort, Dixie Rennel, begins her extravagant speech in her patronising Capitol accent.

I tune her out and try to think of something, anything other than the horrible task that lies ahead of me.

I am snapped back to reality when I hear Dixie say "And now it's time to pick our courageous female tribute who will represent us this year."

I hate the way she says 'us' as if she is part of District 4. She's not; she's from the Capitol and if she thinks that helping two innocent children die will make us want to accept her in our community then the Capitol citizens really are as brainless as they seem.

She makes a big show of picking a name out of the glass bowl.

I look back to Annie. She is making no attempt to hide her fear. I try to give her a reassuring smile but I don't think she sees.

I turn my attention back to Dixie. She opens the slip of paper before smoothing down her skirt and re-positioning herself so that she is in front of the microphone.

"Annie Cresta" she calls out.

And in that moment my heart stops.

I can't move. I can't speak. I can't do anything as I see my best and only friend walk to the stage.

* * *

**Constructive criticism would be great because I'd love to be able to improve my writing.**

**Thanks for reading**

**- Nephemina**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own the Hunger Games.**

* * *

Chapter 2

There were no volunteers; there never are when you want them.

After the Reaping, Annie was whisked away into the Justice Building. I still couldn't do anything. I just sat on the stage as the people cleared away around me until my mother arrived.

She dragged me off the stage and stood hugging me for what seemed like an eternity. She knew how much Annie meant to me and she knew that nothing she said could make me feel better.

Now is the time for final goodbyes for the tributes. I make my way into the Justice Building. It is quite late so Annie's family have probably been and gone. I don't really want to see anyone but her.

I wander through the corridors of the building until I find the rooms where the tributes are kept. There is a Peacekeeper waiting in the corridor.

"Who are you here to see?" He asks in a gruff voice.

"Annie Cresta." I reply.

He points to the door on to my left. I open it and enter a large room with carpeted floors and a beautiful painted ceiling.

There is a small sofa next to a chair that Annie is sitting on. I close the door and walk across the room to her.

She looks up at me. "Hey Finn".

"Hey Annie".

Her eyes are red and I can see the tracks that the tears left running down her cheeks.

I pull her up from the sofa and into a hug. "I'm so sorry Annie." I mumble.

Her name was in just seven times. When I was just fourteen I had my name in twelve times. How was she picked?

I let her go and she sits back down without a word. I sit next to her. In the time since the Reaping I can already see she has changed. I try to remember the loud, outgoing girl I met at the age of fourteen who seems to be fading away already.

I met her the week after the Victory Tour. I had returned to school because, although I didn't want to go, my mother decided that I still needed educating.

The day had been my worst apart from those I spent in the Games. It had been a day full of people acting like they knew me, trying to be my friend and asking questions, one question really. What was it like? Over and over and over from everyone I met and the answer, the true answer, was hell, complete and utter hell. Not that I told anyone that. 'Difficult' was the answer I gave to anyone who asked.

At lunch, when I couldn't take any more of it, I went outside instead of staying in the hall where everyone else ate. After wandering around for a while I sat found a hidden spot between a tall oak tree and the school building.

_I can't cope. I can't cope. I wish I had died, like Coral. I'm sure she's much better off than I am._

_I bury my head in my hands. I doubt I'll come back to school tomorrow. How can my mother want to put me through this?_

_I hear someone coming but I don't move. I don't care that they thought I was really good in the games, I don't care that they always thought I could win, I don't care that they want me to sit with them in afternoon lessons. They can all get lost for all I care._

"_Excuse me" I hear a girl say._

_Great. A girl, they're the worst. I can just about handle guys asking me to be their friends but girls? They never paid any attention to me before but now they act like we've been best friends since birth. Do they not get it? I'm not interested._

"_Go away." I say._

"_Well technically I should be saying that to you considering the fact that you're the one who has stolen my place to eat and not the other way round."_

_I look up immediately. There's a girl with wild brown hair and eyes that are a hypnotising mix of the staple sea green and a pale blue. Finally, someone who treats me like everyone else._

_I begin to stand up._

"_You can sit there." She says. I slide back down into sitting position. "Just don't expect me to treat you like royalty because you killed a few people." I hear her mutter under her breath._

_And I sigh because she sees me for who I actually am, a murderer._

"_You heard that didn't you?" she asks. I nod back._

"_Sorry."_

_I shrug. Why should she apologise for seeing the real me?_

_"So, how's life?" she asks before taking a bite into a roll of bread. I's obviously bakery bread, perfectly shaped, perfectly coloured and perfectly baked, which means she's the daughter of a merchant._

_"Difficult." It seems to be my answer for everything at the minute._

_She nods even though she, being a merchant's daughter, will never have experienced even a glint of a difficult life._

_We sit in silence for a while until we hear the Headmaster ringing the old brass bell that signifies the start of lessons. She shoves her uneaten food into her bag and stands to leave. "Well, I guess I'll see you around."_

"_Stay" I say._

_She looks back, confused "Did you not hear the bell?"_

_"No one'll miss you." I reply smiling._

_She smiles back at me "That is where you are wrong. I doubt any of them will know what to do without their beloved Annie. On the other hand no one will miss YOU." She sits back down next to me._

I turn back to Annie. She's not the girl who stood up to me even though I was a Victor now. She's just staring blankly at the wall.

"Annie" I whisper.

She snaps beck to reality and I realise she has silent tears streaming from her beautiful eyes.

"Shhhhh" I say whilst wiping the tears from her face with the end of my sleeve. "Annie, I promise you will come home. I will do everything I can to bring you back. I promise." I try to comfort her.

"Well that would be a shame. Having to see you again, I think I'd rather be dead."

And the old Annie's back. I laugh and hug her. "I'll miss you"

I stand up to leave. I should probably go to see the other tribute for continuity's sake. As a mentor I'm not really supposed to talk to the tributes but I had to see Annie, I had to tell her that I'd bring her home.

"See you later Finn". she says as I leave.

"See you later Annie"

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed.**

**Thanks**

**- Nephemina**


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own the Hunger Games.**

**P.S Thank you to MissBunburyHope who gave me a reason to jump around my room screaming like a madman.**

* * *

Chapter 3

Nightmares. It's the nightmares. The nightmares that always come for me when I shut my eyes. But these ones, these ones are different. As I run through the arena looking for the Careers I see a body, facing away from me. It looks like Storm, the blonde hair and muscular build. Storm was the one who killed Coral. I'm sure of it. I didn't see but I'm sure of it. I lift my right hand where the trident is already positioned and throw it straight at Storm. He falls to the floor within a second. But as I walk towards him to collect my trident he begins to morph into something else. I know it's her before I even turn the body over. It's the wild brown hair that gives her away. When I turn her over I see her beautiful eyes, flicking between sea green and bright blue like a flame.

"Annie?"

She looks up to me and she begins to look upset as she realises who killed her. "Finn, Finn." She whispers. I can see that she doesn't want it to be true. It is the same look that I had on my face when...when...doesn't matter.

"Finnick" I hear, louder now.

I wake and sit bolt upright. Annie is standing next to the bed looking nervous.

"Sorry. I couldn't wake you."

My breathing begins to calm. She's still here. She hasn't gone to the arena yet and she definitely isn't dead.

"Hey Finn" She says.

I smile. "Hey Annie"

"Can I talk to you Finn?" She asks.

"Of course" I say. She clambers onto the bed next to me. She sits playing with a short piece of rope in a world of her own.

"Annie. You wanted to talk?" I ask.

She looks up at me, pulled out of her trance.

"I wanted this to be my token." She says holding up the rope. "But I probably won't be allowed it, will I? Because I could use it to strangle someone with it, right?"

I smile sadly at her. "Probably not. Have you got anything else from home?"

"I don't really want it because of that. It, it just makes it easier to cope, you know? You don't but, I can just sit here tying and untying knots and, well, it helps me think. It gives my hands something to do while my mind works. You should try it Finn."

We sit in silence while she ties knots in the short piece of rope. I try to prepare myself for what it will be like to watch her…die. What if I can't save her? What if someone gets to her before I can send help? Every year I watch two children I vaguely know be brutally murdered but I don't think I'd be able to cope if it was Annie. Not Annie, she's my only friend.

"Finnick?"

I turn to look at her. She doesn't usually use my full name unless it's important.

"I know I promised that I wouldn't ask this but I'm scared and you're the only person I really know. I need to know"

I reply to her because this question is one of the ones I have been trying to escape all of these years. But it still comes back around.

_I drag my hand through the sand. It spills through my fingers leaving four messy lines raked in the sand._

_The beach near my old house has been the only place that I can escape from the Games, away from the cameras, away from the people, away from the questions._

_The only people here are ones I've known since I was born and their only questions are about my parents and how I'm doing at school._

_I miss living here. Everything was simple, everything was planned out. I'd grow up, learn how to fish, marry one of the girls in the village, fill one of the empty houses with a family and bring up my children the way that I was raised. Despite the security of always having food on the table I would return to my old home any day._

_I hear footsteps behind me and turn around assuming it's a child from the village. I have been offering to tech those select few who don't already know how to swim._

_But instead I see Annie walking down the beach towards me._

"_What are you doing here?" I ask._

"_Well, I was looking for you and your mother said you'd probably be at the sea near your old house so I decided to come down but if I had known it was this far I would have just gone home."_

_I laugh as she flops down onto the sand next to me._

"_So, what are you thinking about?" She asks. "You looked deep in thought before I rudely interrupted you."_

"_Just the Games." I can still hear the cannon fire and the screams. The first time it happened I made the mistake of closing my eyes. In the blackness I saw each and every tribute I killed. My eyes flew open within a second but the picture was engraved in the back of my eyelids so each time I even blink I see the horrific sight._

_She waits a second. "You must be really bored of people asking you what it was like."_

_I look at her, praying that she won't ask._

"_Don't worry. I wouldn't ever ask you about it. I'm sure you just want to forget."_

_I smile. Not only does she treat me like everyone else but she understands me too. Maybe we could be really good friends._

I nod my head, already preparing the answer for the question that I know comes next.

She looks at me, concerned. "What is it like?"

I swallow. "Hell." There are no other words to describe it "Just try to hold on to your values for as long as you can Annie. Don't abandon them at the start." I say. "And remember who you are. Don't forget that."

"I won't forget it Finn. I promise" She says.

But it wouldn't be the first promise she'd broken.

* * *

**I know it was a bad chapter. I'm sorry but I couldn't bring myself to re-write it. I liked too many little sections of it.**

**Sorry,**

**- Nephemina**


	4. Chapter 4

**Two-in-one! I thought the last chapter was so bad that you deserved another today.**

**I don't own the Hunger Games**

* * *

Chapter 4

I wander through the crowd of tributes looking for Annie.

Finally I find her talking to the girls from District 6 and District 10.

"Annie" I say and she turns around.

"Hey Finn" She says beaming.

"Hey Annie" I say looking at her outfit.

She nervously tugs at her skirt which is, quite short to say the least. "Aren't the stylists just the most annoying people you've ever met? I mean, I spent at least half an hour trying to get them to just put an extra inch on this skirt but no, I have to wear this which is about as long as, well, something not very long and makes me look like a prostitute." she rants

"Hey, do you not remember what I had to wear?" I ask. Apart from some very, very short silver shorts I was covered only in body paint.

She laughs. "Okay, you win this one."

"So what do you think?" She asks pulling a ridiculous pose.

I notice that the material of the clothes she is wearing changes through shades of blue and green each time she moves which makes her look exactly like the sea. She is wearing a silver tiara studded with blue and green gems and ribbons are threaded in her hair. I notice that the colours she is wearing match her eyes perfectly. Despite the fact that the stylist is annoying they have been able to pick out the precise colour of her eyes.

"You look fabulous honey." I answer in a ridiculous Capitol accent.

"I should hope so. I deserve some reward for spending nearly the whole day with that stupid prep team. All they talked about were the latest fashoins and parties and their personal lives. I think I'll get myself killed in the games just so I don't have to spend the time with them before the final interview." She looks confused. "I don't think that made sense. Well I'm going to go find Dylan, considering I'm going to have to ride a chariot with him. How exciting!" She says with a cheesy grin on her face.

She turns to leave as I call to her. "Just a warning, the girls always look better than the boys."

As Annie leaves a new girl walks over to me. Pearl, District 1.

"The famous Finnick Odair." She says. "How lovely to finally meet you." She says.

"The pleasure is all mine. It's always nice to meet a beautiful young woman." I say resuming my flirty personality.

She blushes and I look down at what she is wearing. Instantly I feel sorry for the girl.

She is wearing a short skirt, just like Annie's but golden and shorter, if that's even possible. And a long sleeved top made of a see-through fabric and studded with tiny jewels to cover her breasts and create a swirly pattern.

I want to tell her to change. She doesn't know what she's getting herself into by wearing it, just by being pretty.

She's definitely older than sixteen. I wonder if she'd even be allowed to go home, enjoy a few weeks with her family, and live the dream that being a Victor is supposed to be you before being called into a meeting with Snow or if she would be told before she even returned.

_"What?" I ask, confused at what he is implying._

_"Finnick you're a very handsome young man and lots of people would be more than happy to pay large amounts of money to spend a night with you. You wouldn't have to work too often but we'd-"_

_"You want me to be a prostitute?" I ask finally understanding._

_The President simply nods his head._

"_NO" I shout back. Why would I do that? It's horrible and… horrible. I can feel my skin crawling just thinking about it._

_I push my chair back and walk to the door. "It's been a nice chat President and thank you for the offer but I won't take it." What would I possibly get out of it? I have more than enough money as it is. I open the door and turn to leave._

"_Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves now Master Odair. You have people you care about don't you?" He asks._

"_Yes" I reply instantly, confused about where the conversation is going._

_He smiles. "Well it would be so easy to create a little, accident for one of them, wouldn't it?"_

_I shake my head as the meaning of his words settles in. He'll kill them, my family, friends, people care about._

_Suddenly the room feels smaller, looks darker, more sinister. I see my family, dead and alive, friends, old and new, standing around the stuffy room looking straight at me, their eyes begging me not to kill them off so easily._

_Would he? Would he really do it?_

_What am I thinking? He kills twenty three innocent children every year for no reason other than the entertainment of the people in the Capitol._

_As if he was reading my thoughts he says "You don't believe me? Have you spoken to Haymitch Abernathy?"_

_Haymitch? I recognise the name and try to put it to a face. Suddenly I remember, District 12's only mentor. He's always drunk, or so it seems._

"_Because I'm sure he can vouch for me."_

_I remember Chaff telling me the reason he's always drunk. "_He lost all his family, his girl, even his best friend a few weeks after his games. Poor guy_" I had never paid much attention to that because Chaff was so drunk he was slurring his words when he had told me but now I realise it was the President who killed all of them._

_I walk back to my seat. I can't condemn my family because of my stubbornness._

"_Thank you for reconsidering Master Odair." He says._

"Do you like it?" She asks before flicking her blond hair over her shoulder.

I turn back to her. "You look stunning." I tell her.

"I should probably go now. My mentor's trying to get my attention." She says with a wink.

As I watch her walk off I see Haymitch standing by the District 12 chariot, a bottle of liquor in his hand. I try to tell myself that, even without my family, I wouldn't have ended up like that but its no use. Without my family I know that I would have turned to drink, morphling never really appealed to me.

Don't bother worrying about Pearl, I tell myself. She won't be getting out of the arena alive. Annie is going to win.

I'll make sure she wins even if it kills me.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**- Nephemina**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 a day early because I'm going camping tomorrow (YAY!) and won't have access to the internet (BOO!).**

**I don't own the Hunger Games**

* * *

Chapter 5

Training scores, despite what I tell the tributes, are important, very important.

They can be the difference between a sponsor choosing you over a different District and, as everyone knows, sponsors are the only people who will come to your aid in the arena.

So, despite the fact that I tell the tributes that there is nothing to worry about, this night is nerve-wrecking. Especially this year because I know that the score needs to be good.

Tonight the training scores are aired, tomorrow it's the interviews and the day after she leaves.

2 days until she enters the arena. 2 days until I can't protect her from the horrors of reality. 2 days until I lose her.

I don't know what Annie did in her sessions. She refuses to tell anyone. I just hope she did well, well enough to earn her a respectable score, well enough to get her into the Career pack where she'll have people to protect her.

We are all sitting on the large plush sofa in front of the television. I am next to Mags, the two stylists are to our left and then there's Annie and Dylan.

He looks confident. She looks nervous, no, scared.

I don't know what she's done but I know it won't have been using a weapon. I've known for years now that she wouldn't ever touch one.

_The spear flies by the dummy and lodges itself in the wall behind._

"_No, Annie you're standing wrong." I say standing up and walking over to her. I place my hands on her hips and alter her stance so that she's standing in the right position. I hand her another spear. She snatches it off me and throws it. This one is even worse._

_She turns towards me "I can't-"_

"_Don't move." I shout but she already has. I sigh._

_She smiles. "Sorry, I guess."_

_I put her in the right position again and hand her another spear._

"_You're holding it like this." I show her with a spear of my own how she's holding it. "You need to hold it like this." I adjust mine slightly._

"_There's hardly any difference" she complains._

_I sigh. "Just throw the spear." I tell her, exasperated._

_She adjusts her hold on the spear before throwing it. It hits the dummy in the neck._

"_Well, that's better." I go to retrieve the spears from the other end of the hall._

_All day I've been trying to teach her how handle a weapon so she'll know what to do if she ever finds herself in the arena. But she hasn't taken a liking to any of them._

_I know that if I do something wrong it will be her that suffers. And the easiest way to kill her off is to put her into the Games._

_So I have to make sure she's ready._

"_Better? That was great."_

"_Not good enough." I say._

_She turns to look at me but I see that she has her feet firmly planted on the ground to keep her position._

"_Not good enough?"_

"_Do it again." I hand her another spear._

_It hits the wall._

"_You see? It was luck." I tell her._

_She looks offended. "Oh, and you can get it perfect every time." She says sarcastically._

_I push her out of the way and throw the three remaining spears. They all hit the chest. They all would be lethal._

"_Yes, I can. Try again."_

"_What if I don't want to?" she places her hands on her hips._

"_You have to. I promised your father I'd teach you at least one weapon."_

"_Why?" she asks._

"_Because neither of us wants to watch you die in the arena." I shout at her. I rub my forehead. "Sorry Annie, I didn't mean to shout. I…I just can't let you die."_

"_And I suppose killing is so much better. You want me to act like a Career, to mindlessly kill-"_

"_Everyone wants to go home." I tell her. "Outer Districts have killed before."_

_She laughs "No Finnick, no, it's different. The outer Districts nearly always wait. There's nearly always a second, maybe even shorter, when they look at their victim and they think 'Is this right?' and it's that split second that distinguishes them from us. That shows the world that they are humans, not monsters."_

_What is she talking about?_

"_What if we all stopped one year?" she asks._

_Now it's my turn to laugh. "You know that wouldn't happen."_

_She nods. "You're right. It wouldn't. And do you know why? It's because of you, you and every other Victor."_

_I look at her, confused. I try my best. Every year, I try my best to keep them alive. It's hard. She doesn't know how hard it is._

_But she isn't talking about my attempts to save the poor children who end up in the arena. She's talking about the ones who go in bloodthirsty, the ones who volunteer, and the ones who believe that to be a Victor is to be a God._

_She shakes her head, disappointed "You let them think, let them believe that being a Victor is the best thing that can happen to them. And the worst thing is you know, you know that it's nothing like what the Capitol says it is._

"_How many times have you said that you wish you'd died? How many times have you told me you envied those who left the arena in coffins?" she asks._

"_Too many" I whisper_

"_And yet you let them believe. So they train and train until they end up like you. You're sixteen Finnick, barely an adult. Sixteen and you can throw three spears at a dummy and hit every time." She points towards the dummy. "Sixteen and you know the best way to hold a sword. Sixteen and you know where to hit someone to make them fall to the ground. Sixteen and already a murderer."_

_I can no longer hold her gaze so I stare down at the floor, ashamed._

"_I won't train Finnick because I don't plan on being like you. I don't plan on killing anyone at all. But children, innocent children, definitely not them." She walks out silently._

_I just sit down with my head in my hands._

_She's right. Every single word that left her mouth was right._

_I don't know why we do it, why we let them believe._

_I guess it's hope, hope of a brighter future, hope that at least one good thing can come out of something that brings so much horror and of course it's hope, for those who are in there, that if they come out alive they will be rewarded for their efforts._

_We shouldn't do it. I know we shouldn't._

_But none of us can bring ourselves to crush a dying child's last hopes._

No, she definitely won't have used a weapon. I haven't heard one mention of a weapon-related station except the essential ones.

Instead I've heard all about how she got an almost perfect score on both the edible plant and edible animal tests, she can set up ten different types of snares for both animals and people, she knows the best materials to use to make a shelter and so on.

I'm surprised that they allowed her into the Career pack.

Dylan, on the other hand, is a completely different story. He has excelled in every weapon he has picked up and has a real talent with a sword. I expect him to get a high score.

I just hope that Annie's isn't too low.

Pearl and Alana, the girls from 1 and 2, both get an 8. Styx, the boy from 2, manages a 10. The boy from 1, Clos, receives a disappointing 6.

Dylan's score comes up. He earns a 9 which, even in the eyes of a Career is a pretty good score.

There is lots of congratulating but I stay seated, listening intently, waiting for the next score, Annie's.

The number comes on to the screen just a fraction of a second before Claudius Templesmith reads it out.

7. As far as survival skills go, 7 is good.

Of course the Gamemakers will have bumped it up a bit because she's from a Career District but it's still impressive. I hug her. It's probably a couple of seconds too long because I earn a few disapproving stares from the stylists and the escort.

"Well done Annie." I say, beaming.

She simply shrugs and walks to her bedroom.

I watch her as she walks away and try not to remember the look in her eyes.

It was a look I have seen so many times in the few years I have been a mentor.

It was the look of a person who has given up all hope.

* * *

**Thanks for reading,**

**- Nephemina**


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own the Hunger Games**

* * *

I have always been a good speaker, or as Mags would say 'eloquent', but that definitely does not mean that I can teach other people how to speak.

Which is why I got Dylan and Mags got Annie. Because Dylan's approach was obvious whilst Annie's wasn't.

Even as Annie sits talking to Ceasar I'm still unsure of her approach. I guess she's being humble, complimenting the Capitol and its citizens and its buildings and its food etc. but it isn't really the best approach, not for a Career. However, Annie hasn't exactly been acting like a Career has she?

"It's just so different, so different from home. Everything's bigger and more extravagant. It's going to take some getting used to." She says, tucking her hair behind her ear nervously. I find it funny that, with me, she's so confident and yet she's obviously nervous talking to Ceasar. Then again the bright yellow that he's sporting this year isn't exactly comforting.

"So, is there a boy waiting?" Ceasar says, taking the conversation in a completely different direction.

She blushes and looks down to the ground.

"Oh, so there is a boy."

"Well, no. I mean, it's complicated."

"Things rarely aren't." Ceasar replies with a knowing look. "But do tell us, who is this boy who you have a complicated relationship with?"

She laughs and taps the side of her nose. "I can't tell you. It's a secret."

"Ooh, this is getting more interesting by the second." He grins and looks around at the crowd "So, can you tell us something about the mysterious boy. A memory maybe."

She looks down at the floor again, a smile spreading across her face. "The last night before the Reaping he … we had dinner."

"Dinner? How old is he?" Ceasar chips in.

"Oh, only a year older than me but it's like he's lived decades longer. Inside, he's been through more than most fifty year olds." She seems to drift off for a second before returning to reality. "Anyway, we had dinner because he had to go somewhere after the Reaping and he said he wouldn't be able to see me" She picks the words carefully so as not to give away my identity. "and when we finished he walked me home and we stood outside in the rain watching the sun set and it was the happiest moment of my life."

"_I have a feeling I shouldn't have come." She says._

"_Why?"_

"_This is far too romantic for my liking." She explains._

"_Romantic?"_

_She shakes her head. "Seriously Finn, there's a candle."_

_Which is true, there is one lit in the middle of the table and I blow it out before putting it on the floor. "Candle? What?"_

_She looks down at the table and laughs. Her hair falls in front of her face as she looks up. "You know I could have sworn there was a candle right there" she points at the spot where the candle was standing "just a second ago."_

"_Weirder things have happened." I reply with a shrug._

"_I guess so."_

_We sit in silence. It's not awkward; then again we're too close for anything to be awkward anymore._

"_Why are we here Finn?" she says eventually._

"_Well, that's a very philosophical question that I don't feel I can adequately answer."_

_She shakes her head but she's smiling and her eyes are sparkling. "Not why are we alive but why the romantic dinner-"_

_I roll my eyes. "It's not romantic, it's friendly, remember? I explained this."_

_She smiles. "Oh 'friendly'? Really? Because people have friends over for dinner all the time." She says sarcastically._

"_Yep"_

"_Okay, why the 'friendly' meal."_

_I bite my lip "Because it's your last reaping tomorrow."_

_She nods. "You think I'm going to go?"_

_I tilt my head back. "I don't know Annie. I don't know anything anymore."_

"_Well, as fun as this has been, I have to get home. Kinda big day tomorrow." She stands up and tucks her chair under the table._

"_I'll walk you home."_

_She rolls her eyes. "Seriously Finn? I mean romantic dinner, candle, 'I'll walk you home'. Is today just a chance to use a whole load of romantic clichés?"_

_I smile before walking around the table to her. I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear and lean down to whisper "maybe" into her ear._

_She's trying to be serious but I can see that she wants to smile. "I think you forget we're just friends."_

_I shrug "Yeah, but I have no one else to use them on, so I'm afraid you'll be at the peril of my romantic clichés until I outgrow them."_

_She smiles and I walk her to the door. I open it to see rain drizzling down onto the street, the sun low in the sky. I break out into a big grin and take her hand. This is perfect._

"_What are you doing?" she asks as I pull her out. "Thank you Mrs Odair!" she shouts back into the house as I run the familiar route to her house. "Look, at least slow down so I can catch up with you."_

"_We haven't got time." I say._

_She just shakes her head; she knows me too well to question what I'm talking about._

_When we finally reach her house I stand in front of it looking out to the horizon before suddenly turning around and kissing her._

_She promptly pushes me away before saying "What was that?"_

"_Sorry. Kissing in the rain whilst the last rays of sunshine disappear over the horizon."_

_She raises one eyebrow and smiles. "Right. So it wasn't just an excuse to kiss me."_

_I shrug._

_She stands awkwardly before running her hand through her hair that lies, damp, against her face. "We both decided 'just friends' was better. You said it was safer."_

_Which is true because the closer I get to anyone, the more likely I am to hurt them. But it doesn't stop me from wishing._

"_I should probably go now. My parents are discreetly looking through the window at me and they look kind of angry."_

"_I wonder why that is?" I say although we both know that they don't exactly like me. Something about pulling Annie into the downward spiral that I am sure to go through. Which is true. Victors usually turn to morphling or drink or… there are endless possibilities._

"_Probably the 'kissing in the rain as the last rays of sun disappear over the horizon'. I don't think they understand the romantic gesture." She says as she walks, backwards, towards her house._

"_I'll see you tomorrow Annie." I call._

"_See you tomorrow Finn." She replies as she opens the door to her house, leaving me alone with my thoughts in the rain._

I guess I was happy then.

There is a collective 'ahh' from the audience.

It feels weird, them knowing. I mean, they don't know who I am but … it feels like Annie's taken one of my most treasured memories and has given it away, just like that, for everyone to see.

It's not just ours anymore.

* * *

**Sorry for the questionable quality of this chapter.**

**Thanks**

**- Nephemina**


	7. Chapter 7

**I don't own the Hunger Games**

* * *

Chapter 7

I hear a knock on the door.

I get out of bed and go to open it to reveal Annie.

I wait for her to talk but in the end I say "Hey Annie".

She smiles and replies "Hey Finn".

I move out of the doorway and she walks in. I close the door and walk in after her. She sits at the foot of my bed and I sit down next to her.

Every night since the night on the train Annie has come to talk to me. It's never anything important, just talking about funny memories; the Games are never really mentioned. But I know today it will be different because she's sitting playing with the short length of rope.

Suddenly she stops and holds out the string for me. "Mags said there is no way I'd be allowed to have it so, I want you to have it." She says.

I look down at the rope.

I begin to untie the bracelet around my wrist. It was made from strips of leather that have been weaved together. Apparently it has been in my family for years and it was my token in the Games. Since then I haven't taken it off.

I hold it out to Annie. "We'll swap and when you get back we'll swap back."

She smiles before taking the bracelet and securing it around her wrist. "Thank you Finn."

I take the string and put it on my bedside table.

"I'll miss you Finnick" She asks.

"You'll be back in no time." I reply.

She rolls her eyes. "Finnick, I'll be in an arena with twenty three people who want me dead. Can we stop pretending that I'll come out alive?"

"Annie, you're coming back. I'll do everything I can to make sure that you do." I tell her.

"Okay" she says but I can see in her face that it is not the last time we'll touch on the subject.

We sit talking about what we'd do in certain situations in the arena until I realise how late it is.

"Come on Annie, you've got to get some sleep. You need your wits with you in the arena."

She stands up and walks to the door as I crawl under the covers but before she closes the door she turns back to me.

"Finnick, just in case I don't come out I have-"

"Don't talk like that, I promise you'll come back."

She rolls her eyes. "Are you ever going to learn when to shut your mouth?" She asks "Because I'm sure they are in need of avoxes."

"Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I have to tell you, in case I don't come out of the games…forget it"

"Don't do that Annie. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to figure out what you were going to tell me." I begin to scramble out of bed.

She looks down at the floor. "I love you Finn."

_Annie and I are sitting with our backs against the wall in my bedroom doing history homework._

_I sigh. "What did you get for question three?" I ask Annie._

_She looks at me like I am possibly the stupidest person in the whole of district 4._

"_What? I honestly don't know."_

"_Well maybe if you actually listened you would." She smirks._

"_You sound like my mother. And anyway, I am the victor of the 65th Hunger Games and therefore excused from schooling duties." I say in an almost impeccable Capitol accent._

_She rolls her eyes and pushes me softly. "Don't go all superior on me Master Odair." She looks back to her book and I know she won't give me the answer._

_I begin to chew the end of my pen but I'm not looking down at the book in front of me but at Annie._

_She doesn't look like she's from District 4. She has dark, dark for District 4, brown hair. Her eyes are a mix of the staple District 4 sea green and a light blue that catches the light and flickers almost every time she moves._

"_You're staring." She tells me, pulling me back into the real world._

"_Sorry" I mutter._

"_It's okay" she says and then she kisses me._

_And I'm entranced because this kiss means so much more than any kiss I received in the Capitol. This confirms what I have wished to be true for years. Annie loves me._

_But then I remember President Snow and I remember why I have stopped myself from doing this for so many years. I remember that every time I go to the Capitol I'd have to lie to Annie and all I'd be able to think of would be her, back home, thinking I was having a meeting with the President. And I remember that I'd never be able to marry her because the President would find out and he wouldn't allow it. So all she'd have would be a promise and so many of them have been broken over the years I doubt that she'd accept just that. And finally, there's the fact that if I say I love her she'll be more likely to be hurt if I do something wrong._

_So I quickly move away from her._

_She looks up at me, hurt._

_I can't bear to see her upset. "I'm so sorry but I can't. You'd only end up being hurt and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did that to you Annie."_

"_You wouldn't hurt me." she says but I know that I already have and she realises it too. "Would you?" she asks me and her eyes are begging me to say that I wouldn't but I can't lie, not to her._

"_Not intentionally" I mutter but she hears me._

"_What do you mean? Finnick I don't understand."_

"_I don't want you to." I tell her before standing up and sitting down on my bed. I have to move away from her. She's just one of them, with all of the questions that I don't want to, don't know how to answer._

"_Why not?" she asks._

_I look her right in the eyes. "I've done horrible things Annie. You'd never talk to me again if you knew just half of them."_

_She moves to sit next to me. "If you think I'd do that then you don't know me at all." She says._

_I look over to her and she seems so honest. She smiles sweetly._

"_Do you promise?" I ask. I can't lose her._

"_I won't leave you Finn. I promise."_

_And so I tell her. I tell her everything that happened since I became a Victor. By the end of it I'm leaning on Annie's shoulder. She hasn't said a word since I began talking. I look up at her. She is staring at the wall blankly. We spend a few short minutes like that, unmoving before she removes her shoulder from under my head._

"_I should probably go now." She says in an emotionless voice and she walks out of the room and down the stairs._

_Suddenly all of the anger wells up inside me and I run to the top of the stairs and shout down to her. "You said you wouldn't leave me. You promised Annie, you promised."_

_But she pays no attention to me and I hear the door click. I run my hand through my hair and realise what has just happened._

_Not only have I lost my only friend but I have just lost the only girl I have ever loved._

I'm sure that me remembering that is my brain's last attempt at trying to get me to remember all of the reasons that I shouldn't be with Annie but in this moment I can only think of one reason and it's a reason why I should be with her.

I love her. And she loves me.

I stand in front of her. We stay, just looking at each other for what feels like years before she rolls her eyes and pulls me down to kiss her.

When our lips finally part she says "Didn't see that coming did you?"

I smile. "Are we really still doing that?" I ask her.

When we were younger, if you did something unexpected and said 'You didn't see that coming' afterwards the other owed you a sweet. I can't really remember how it started but I'm sure that I owe Annie a crate full of them.

After a few seconds and no answer I lean down to kiss her.

"One question." She says.

I roll my eyes.

"Do you love me?"

I am taken aback by it. I had always assumed that she knew the answer to that question.

"Yes" I say before picking her up and spinning around. "I love you more than anything else in the whole of Panem."

"Shh." she says between giggles. "Someone might hear you."

"I don't care who hears." I say.

And in this moment I'm don't care who hears. President Snow could be listening for all I care. It doesn't matter to me.

All that matters is Annie's body in my arms, her hands running through my hair and her lips pressed against mine.

* * *

**Thanks For Reading**

**- Nephemina**


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own the Hunger Games**

* * *

Chapter 8

60, 59, 58, 57 …

What I wouldn't give to stop the clock. What I wouldn't give to just end it all now. What I wouldn't give to save her.

But even now, as I am thinking this, I'm losing time. Time, the one thing I don't have enough of. Oh, and free choice. I have none of that either.

I look up at the screen in the big lobby. This is where the mentors have to stay to deal with sponsors and watch the Games. We can occasionally go back to the apartment and try to catch up on sleep but, otherwise, we are expected to stay cooped up here.

As the most recent Victor I have to mentor unless one of the other Victors volunteers for me. That's how Ermin, the Victor who won the year I was born, got out of it. Mags, the oldest Victor from District 4, volunteered for him.

But I am stuck here. I guess it's for the best really. Back in District 4 there would be no way to protect Annie, no way to keep her safe, no way to help her.

She comes up on the screen. I'd be lying if I said she looked confident but I'd also be lying if I said she looked scared. She just looks unsure.

I'm unsure really. The arena she's in doesn't look safe at all. It's like a village really with thousands of tiny straw huts to one side of the Cornucopia. Snaking through the village and up a giant hill there's a long thin river. On the right of the Cornucopia there's a forest. It's dense with trees and it seems like the sun, that is high in the sky, can't penetrate the thick layers of leaves.

Just looking at the arena I can tell what the Gamemakers are going to do. They'll make it so that the heat is unbearable and everyone will have to hide in the forest for shelter, the river will dry up and it will be so hot that the straw huts catch fire.

They need to start making these things less obvious.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

The sound of the gong rings in my ears as I see children running to the silver Cornucopia. It hasn't been ten seconds before the slaughter begins.

The girl from District 1, Pearl, grabs the nearest weapon, a small dagger, and stabs it right into the neck of the little boy from District 6.

After that they all fall in quick succession of each other.

The boy from 8, boy from 5, girl from 12, boy from 11, girl from 6, girl from 3, boy from 9, girl from 8, girl from 7.

In the carnage it's hard to locate Annie but I do catch glimpses of her.

The Bloodbath lasts 5 minutes and 18 seconds exactly. In that time 10 children die, 9 disperse into the woods and 5 are left at the Cornucopia.

Pearl, Alana, Styx, Dylan and Annie. The boy from District 1 ran off into the woods alone with just a backpack and a knife.

He's a clever one. I remember Mags' words of wisdom 'the Careers may be able to keep you alive but just remember they'll stab you in the back just as easily'.

_Fourteen died. From what I've heard that's pretty good. The Bloodbath only usually claims about half of the children but this year I've only got nine to kill._

_All six of the Careers made it out alive. We're all camping around a fire. It gives away our position but no one is confident enough to challenge us. Even if the four left joined up against us they couldn't beat us._

_Coral and I are the only two awake. We're on watch until we can't keep our eyes open. I rummage through the backpacks that I found at the Cornucopia. One just contains the normal things you'd need to stay alive, food ect. The others are worth a lot more. One is filled with tablets of all shapes and sizes and colours, each in a bottle with a little label, and the other contains all sorts of useful medicines. I keep these ones from the rest of the group. I'm sure that the others would want to split them evenly between everyone but I'm not sure how long I'm staying. I might leave tonight._

_ I didn't even know that they provided things like this in the arena. Medicines, tablets, I've not know them to ever have things like that in the Cornucopia. But they can't provide one trident. If I had one I'd definitely win._

_"What are you thinking?" I hear Coral ask._

_I turn to look at her. The firelight only makes her look prettier, makes her eyes look deep and mysterious._

_"You looked deep in thought."_

_"I think I'm going to leave." I say. I trust Coral not to tell them, not to give me away._

_"What? Leave the alliance?"_

_I nod. "Do you want to come with?"_

_"You're joking right." She looks at my face. "You're not. So you're leaving. Why?"_

_I shrug. "Well, at some point we're all going to turn on each other and there are only four others left so that point is definitely going to be soon. I just…don't want to be here when that happens."_

_She nods. "What are you taking?"_

_"Just the things that I found at the Cornucopia. I'll leave everyone else's things alone."_

_Again she simply nods._

_"You could come with me, you know."_

_This time she shakes her head slowly. "Styx, Styx is ruthless. You can see it in his eyes. I don't want to get on the wrong side of him."_

_"You'll be on the wrong side of him anyway. For letting me get away."_

_"Hit me"_

_"What?"_

_She rolls her eyes. "Knock me out. Then I can say you hit me and ran off."_

_I begin to look through the smallest backpack._

_"Please Finnick."_

_I pull out a small orange pill. "Give me your drink."_

_"What?"_

_I hold the pill up. "Sleeping pill. It'll knock you out."_

_"And how do I know that it's not poison or…"_

_I hold up the bottle. "Does it or does it not say 'sleeping pills'?"_

_She still looks sceptical as she holds out her bottle, filled with clear water. I drop the pill in and it fizzes, turning the water a light shade of orange._

_I pick up the backpacks, slinging one on my back and shoving the backpacks into my sleeping bag._

_"Bye Coral." I say._

_She waves and tips the water back into her mouth. The effects are almost instant. She drops the bottle and most of the liquid spills out but I make sure there is a tiny bit left in the bottom, so that she can prove it. And I walk off into the forest._

Of course I wouldn't tell Annie to run away from the Careers, she wouldn't last without them.

I guess I am worried at what will happen when the alliance breaks up but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Until then I'm just glad than Annie is with someone who'll be able to protect her.

They wait for the cannon shots and count 10. They try to figure out who's still alive but no one can remember who they murdered.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed it.**

**Thanks for reading**

**- Nephemina**


	9. Chapter 9

**I don't own the Hunger Games**

* * *

Chapter 9

I don't want to sleep, when I sleep all I see are nightmares, thousands of them. I know I have to sleep because I have barely rested my eyes since Annie entered the arena but I can't sleep for more than an hour before waking up from a terrible nightmare.

I stumble out of my bedroom and into the living room and I sit on the sofa. The television turns on automatically. Claudius Templesmith is announcing the betting odds. I see that Annie's not doing too well compared to the other Careers.

I find the short length of rope in my pocket and begin to fiddle with it. Annie was right; it does help. I can't explain it any more eloquently than she did but it does help.

I'm supposed to be helping Mags deal with the sponsors but she allowed me to come back here, the apartment where the tributes stay before they go to the arena, so that I could sort myself out. Usually, during the Games, we'd take it in turns to sleep so that there was always someone who could help the tributes but this year it seems that Mags is doing all of the work. It's a shame because usually I can convince female sponsors to choose District 4 but I don't feel like talking, never mind flirting, with anyone from the Capitol, especially whilst they just sit back and watch Annie struggling for life.

My attention is drawn to the television when it changes quickly from Claudius Templesmith to a split screen of the sleeping Careers and a group consisting of the fifteen year old girl from District 5 who possesses both immense beauty and immense skill with a spear, the twelve year old boy from District 7 who is good with an axe, can handle a sword well and can scale a tree within a couple of seconds and the thirteen year old girl from District 11 who, although is no use in a fight, knows all there is to know about edible plants and has been the main thing keeping the group eating in the past few days. It is strange for the higher Districts to form alliances, especially at such a young age.

They must be about to run into the Careers or they wouldn't show us it. The girl from District 1, I think her name is Pearl, is awake, hand resting on her loaded bow. Annie is sleeping, next to her lies a dagger. Dylan is sleeping beside Annie with a throwing knife in his hand and a sword next to him. A bit further away from both of them lays Styx from District 2. He doesn't look like he's asleep and his hands rests on a mace. The girl from his District was killed yeaterday during an encounter with both of the tributes from District 10.

When the group stumbles upon the Careers all hell breaks loose.

Pearl raises her bow and aims it at the girl from 5 whilst shouting "WAKE UP". Styx gets to his feet immediately as Dylan begins to stand. Annie has hardly raised her head.

Pearl lets the arrow fly as the girl from District 5 raises a spear and throws it at Pearl. The arrow hits the girl in the shoulder. As Pearl tries to dodge the spear she reloads her bow and aims it at the girl's head.

Styx is engaged in a fight with the boy from District 7 who is using a long sword.

"Annie" Dylan shouts as he throws a knife at the girl from 11 who was charging at Annie with a sickle. It lodges itself in her heart. Annie lookes down at the girl, transfixed.

"Help!" Styx calls. He is on his back on the floor scrambling away from the boy from 7. The boy is advancing towards Styx, sword in hand.

With one last glance at Annie, Dylan charges over to the boy and begins fighting with him. There was the horrible sound of metal clashing against metal.

Annie finally snaps out of the trance she was in and turns towards Dylan just in time to see him beheaded by the boy from District 7.

I get ready to see the memory that I see every year when the first from District 4 dies.

_I hear someone coming so I quickly climb up a tree and wait for them._

_As they enter the clearing they get caught in the net opposite me. I quickly throw a spear from the tree._

_There is a scream as it enters the body of my victim._

_I jump down from the tree to retrieve my spear._

_I only join the dots when I'm a few paces from the net._

_Tan skin, golden brown hair and, when she looked up at me, sea green eyes. District 4. Quite obviously District 4._

"_Coral?" I ask, willing for the answer to be no._

_But of course I'm not that lucky._

"_Finnick" She says._

_I scramble to find a knife and I cut her out of the net. She falls into my arms and I slowly lay her down on the ground. I look down at her and decide the first thing I have to do is take the spear out._

"_This is going to hurt." I tell her "But I have to take it out"._

"_Okay" she says but I can see she's scared._

_I pull it out in one swift move. She cries out in pain as I throw the bloody spear to the ground. It looks to have entered below her right shoulder leaving a bloody mess but it shouldn't be fatal, I hope._

"_I should probably clean it up." I say._

_She nods and I go to find a cloth in my supplies._

_I cut away the shoulder of her suit to reveal equally bloody undergarments. As I begin to wipe the blood away I see her wince._

"_I'm so sorry Coral" I say._

"_No, I'm sorry Finnick. "_

"_For what?"_

"_Can you forgive me FInnick?"_

_Something isn't right. She hasn't done anything to me._

"_I'm sorry Finnick. I'm so, so sorry."_

_I'm about to ask what she's sorry for but the answer comes bounding through the woods._

_Storm comes charging into the clearing as I jump to my feet. He swings his sword sloppily as I reach for the spear that I tossed aside before. I manage to pick it up and I stab it into his thigh._

_He quickly pulls it out and leaves a river of blood flowing down his leg._

_I stumble back right into someone else, Tyger._

"_Careful there District 4. We wouldn't want you hurting yourself now, would we?" Tyger whispers._

_He holds me so that I can only really move my head._

_I see Coral still on the floor and I shout to her. "Run, Coral get out of here. Coral run, run." By the end I'm screaming at the top of my voice._

_She begins to stand and run but Velvet appears from behind a tree._

"_Where you going Coral? We wouldn't want you to miss the party." She says in Coral's ear._

_Can't they just kill us? They have us in a perfect position, why aren't we dead?_

_I have caused them too much trouble, haven't I? They need to get back at me for abandoning them and making them look stupid._

"_Yeah Coral, I thought you were on our side" Storm says "well, I guess people change."_

_I look at Coral; she looks down at the ground which confirms what I had already gathered from Storm's words. She led them here. She was just a distraction so I wouldn't be ready when the others came._

"_Can't even look him in the eye." Storm spits at Coral._

"_Why?" I ask Coral but her head remains hung low in shame and she doesn't make a sound._

"_Are you going to answer or should I do it for you?" Storm asks her. Again there is no answer._

"_Well, Coral here is weak. That is why she has done this, because she's weak and scared and useless. Because she'd rather betray her district partner than risk a fight with us. Isn't that right Coral?" Storm says. There is no answer._

_Storm lifts Coral's head by tugging her hair._

_She cries out in pain._

"_Stop" I shout._

_Tyger kicks me. "Stay out of this District 4." he hisses into my ear._

_Storm turns back to Coral. "I asked you a question Coral. Answer it." He says, letting go of her._

_She lets her head drop then she mutters an answer._

"_What's that Coral? I don't think Finnick quite caught that."_

_She lifts her head and looks straight at me. "I'm so sorry Finnick." She says._

"_By that she means 'yes'. In case you hadn't already gathered."_

"_I know Storm" I tell him._

_I'm desperately trying to think of a way out, a way that both Coral and I can get away. I know there's a trap I few paces behind me but Coral would probably be killed the second I kicked up a fuss and I can't condemn her like that._

"_Did you hear that Coral. He already knows you're a backstabbing bitch."_

"_Don't talk to her like that." I tell Storm._

"_Oh, don't think you can tell me what to do District 4." He says shaking his head._

_He moves so that he is standing centimetres from Coral. He takes a knife from his belt._

"_You have such a pretty little face." He tells Coral as he drags the knife down her right cheek leaving a long red line reaching from her ear to her mouth._

"_Please, don't hurt her." I say, begging now that nothing else seems to have worked._

_Storm turns to look at me and Coral takes the opportunity to rip her leg from Velvet's grasp and kick his feet. They are lifted off the ground and he falls backwards._

_I use all my force and manage to push Tyger backward. He trips over a rock and falls back into a net. I manage to free myself from him just in time. The net is pulled up and Tyger is left in it, unable to get out, dangling from a tree._

_I see Coral trying to fight off Velvet with her bare hands. Behind her Storm is beginning to get back to his feet._

"_Coral!" I shout._

_She turns towards me. "Run Finnick!" She shouts. "Get away from here."_

_I see one of my spears laying on the ground a few metres from me. Without thinking I pick it up and throw it at Storm who is about to swing his sword at Coral. It hits him in his lower back and he slowly crumples on the ground._

"_Coral, we need to go" I say._

"_Finnick what are you still doing here? Go, go now" She shouts._

_I begin to run from the clearing. On the way I pick up a backpack and sling it on my back._

_I run as fast as I can with no real direction. After a short time I hear a cannon fire. Somehow I know it isn't one of the Careers._

Styx is back on his feet and he immediately hits the boy from District 7 on the head with his mace. It comes away bloody and I know the hit was fatal.

Pearl joins Styx as they look at Dylan's body. They know that there is nothing that they can do to save him.

But the camera quickly turns to Annie who has started to back away from the others. She takes one last look at Dylan's head before she turns and flees the scene with nothing but the dagger she is grasping and the clothes on her back.

"ANNIE" I shout at the television. "Annie, turn back" I beg. "Please turn back, you're safer with them Annie. Please Annie you said you'd try your hardest to come back. You promised."

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**- Nephemina**


	10. Chapter 10

**I don't own the Hunger Games**

* * *

Chapter 10

The screen shows Annie again. They don't show her very often. She never seems to do anything interesting. She's curled up in foetal position next to a tree. She hasn't eaten anything since it happened. She hasn't drank anything either. I can already see the early signs of dehydration.

Seven hours. In that time I have done nothing. Mags has come up to force me to eat and drink twice.

Eight hours. In that time she has done nothing. No one has forced her to do anything. No one knows where she is.

I begin to think that Snow has decided against my offer.

Doesn't he realise. Doesn't he realise how much I need her.

No. He doesn't. He is as cold as a stone. His almost none-existent heart has not been programmed with the feeling of empathy.

To him she is just a girl. Just an insignificant girl who will be killed along the 22 other children.

Suddenly the ground begins to shake and a low rumble can be heard.

Tributes begin to fall to the ground due to the power of it. Annie, who is already on the ground, just lies there.

The screen shows the dam on the eastern side of the arena. The river that flowed from the dam up on a hill to the Cornucopia is the only water source in the arena and in the past few days the Gamemakers have been letting less and less flow into the valley.

But now the dam seems to be cracking. First it's only little squirts but soon the dam has broken completely and enormous amounts of water begin to fill the arena.

Water. I can't believe that Snow would do anything so obvious. Water is such a big advantage for District 4. None of the others even learn how to swim.

But I don't care how obvious he was. He did it. He saved her.

It was about eight hours ago that I visited Snow.

_I am banging my fists against the door now. "Snow" I shout. "Snow, open the door now."_

_But still he doesn't show his face._

_I rest my head against the door. He is not coming. He won't listen to me. There is no way I can save Annie._

_I back away from the door, the door that was my last hope, and sit down, head in hands. I won't ever see Annie again. She's not coming back. She's not coming back._

_I hear the door open and look up to see Snow standing above me. The smell of artificial roses hits me immediately. It takes all I have not to throw up._

"_Do come in Finnick."_

_I stand up and try to compose myself for Annie's sake._

_He is sitting at his desk observing a small, turquoise jewel. The blinds are drawn on the windows behind him and the only light is coming from a small lamp on his desk. With all of the dark wood and the absence of light the room seems almost sinister. It fits Snow's personality perfectly._

_I sit in the seat in front of the desk and wait until he neatly places the turquoise jewel between a silver one and a yellow one that has been carved into the shape of a z._

_There are a long line of jewels on the end of his desk, all different colours and shapes. They are tiny, probably just only bigger than my thumbnail. They must have been very hard to carve and yet each one is perfect, there is not one that doesn't look immaculate._

"_They're beautiful, aren't they?" Snow says._

"_Yes" I reply because they are mesmerising._

"_But I'm sure that's not why you've come to see me."_

_I turn away from the array of gems because he is right. There is a much more important reason why I am sitting in his office._

"_You have to save her." I say._

_He laughs. "And why would that be? Why should I save this certain girl?"_

"_Because I need her."_

"_I asked you why I should save her, not why you want to save her." He says looking back to the jewels._

_It is then that I realise that he has no empathy. No matter how much I tell him she means to me, he won't be affected. Because it's my pain, not his._

_So I try to find a reason why he'd benefit from her life. And it doesn't take long for me to find it._

"_I won't work." I say. His head snaps round immediately. "If she dies I won't."_

_He looks worried for a second before he smiles a sinister smile. "Finnick, do you understand the affects this will have on the ones you love, your family."_

"_She is the one I love" I retort "and she is my family."_

"_And you would be willing to kill the rest of your family and friends because of your one foolish decision."_

_I think of my mother. She's the only other person in my life besides Annie and maybe Mags. Could I let her die?_

_For Annie, yes. She hasn't really lived since my father died and I know the only reason she is still alive is because she wants to make sure that I remember who I am. I know that she'd understand my bargaining with her life. She knows I love Annie more than anything else._

"_You could do whatever you wanted with her."_

"_Her?" He asks_

"_My mother is the only family I have left." I reply simply._

_I can see him trying to figure out whether he would earn more from letting one of the prettier tributes win or letting Annie win and keeping me. I have a feeling I will win. Maybe the enchanting girl from District 5 could have outweighed me but I don't think the rest of the tributes have much of a case against Finnick Odair._

"_I will consider your offer. You are dismissed." The President tells me._

_I leave the room silently._

Deep down I think I knew that he couldn't let me go.

But there was still that tiny doubt, that sliver of a chance that he wouldn't do it. That Annie would die.

And just that tiny bit of doubt was enough to drive me insane.

But I'm okay now. I feel strangely calm as I watch six tributes flailing about in the wave and one keeping afloat almost perfectly.

She still looks as lost as she did before but I think her natural instinct to survive has kicked in.

The other tributes begin drowning one by one until I have heard six shots and Claudius Templesmith's voice booms into the arena "Ladies and Gentlemen. I am pleased to present the Victor of the 70th Annual Hunger Games, Annie Cresta."

A hovercraft arrives and she is lifted into the sky.

She's coming home. I cannot contain my excitement. I am beaming and suddenly the room is light and I instantly feel warmer.

She's coming home.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**- Nephemina**


	11. Chapter 11

And that's when I see her.

I don't even wait to finish my sentence because all I can do is stare at her. She looks different, so foreign to me.

She's wearing a green dress, the same shade of green that she wore at the tribute parade, with a skirt that floats gently, delicately, elegantly around her knees. It's made of a fabric that changes through hundreds, thousands, of shades of blue, green and every colour that lies in between. Her make-up is simple but dazzling with just a hint of green on her eyelids and a dash of pink on her lips. Her hair, falling in soft waves as usual, looks so different to what I remember.

I'm making my way through the crowd before I know it. By the time I reach her, her stylist is finished, busy talking to the escort instead, and we are as alone as we could be in a crowded room.

"Annie" I whisper but I don't do anything else. I don't move. I definitely don't try to talk, knowing that anything I say won't come out right. I just look at her, finding the differences, finding the similarities between the Annie I knew before.

"Annie" I repeat, not trusting myself to say anything. And not knowing what to say next. 'I missed you' would be the obvious thing to say. It's the truth.

'I love you' that would be the truth too.

Love, it's such a strange word, a strange thing. It consumes you.

And yet all too often we don't even realise it's there.

It's like a cancer, and I hate to compare it to something so sad, forming inside of you without you knowing, without your permission.

And that's why you can't know when it started, not exactly. There's no such thing as an exact moment that you fell in love because it starts off so small, so tiny, that there's no way you can find the moment it appeared.

The only thing you can find is the moment you noticed.

"_Tig"_

"_What do you mean Tig?" I shout back to Annie who is _

_She shrugs. "Tig. We could play tig."_

_I raise my eyebrows even though she's probably too far away to see me "Tig? Seriously?"_

"_At least it's better than just sitting there writing some God-awful poems. Talking of which, when do I get to read them?" She asks as she begins making her way up the beach towards me._

"_Sometime" I shout back down to her._

_She nods, sitting down beside me. "Sometime? How mysterious. Are they full of secrets?"_

"_No" I say defensively. There aren't any secrets hidden between the pages of the leather bound notebook. Not at all. It's just that the poem I'm writing is about her_

"_Well what does it hide if not your deepest, darkest sins? Don't' tell me it's full of your plans to murder people because if so I'm in." She jokes._

"_No. It's just full of … stuff."_

"_Well aren't you mysterious Master Odair. Will I ever get to see them?"_

_I nod. "I promise."_

"_Cool. Now are you going to play Tig with me or not."_

"_What will you do if I say no?" I ask, expecting some horrible form of slow and painful death but instead I'm greeted with "I'll still play."_

_So off course I am slightly taken aback and it takes me a minute to form a reply. "You can't play with yourself."_

"_I can try!" she replies. "Come on Finn, I can almost see the sadness that you wallow in when you pick up that notebook."_

_I roll my eyes before throwing the book to the ground and reaching out to touch her. "Tig" I shout at the top of my lungs before running off, almost slipping due to the bad grip that the sand provides._

"_We hadn't started yet." She shouts back at me._

_I stop running and turn back to look at her. "Tough, you're it."_

"_Cheater" she shouts, but she's smiling and beginning to stand up so I know I'm in the clear._

_Its hours before we finish, drenched in water from attempting to find refuge in the sea. Walking back to the houses we talk of trivial matters, schoolwork, gossip, the norm, but when I get home I lock myself in the security of my room._

_My mother takes little interest, knowing that I need time to myself._

_I open up my notebook, a small, old book that I bought just weeks after I became a Victor, down at the market in town._

_It had been my mother's idea to buy it, to fill it with poetry. I'd always loved the way poems worked, the rhythm of them, the flow and the beat, but mainly the use of metaphors. The way you can liken love to a cancer, the way you can liken people to paintings and you can write so much and people will still never know what you really meant, because the true meaning is yours._

_It had also been her idea to use it as my talent, to show all of the Capitol. At first I hadn't liked the idea, sharing a poem that means a lot to you is like sharing a small piece of your hear, a small piece of your soul, but in the end I agreed, it didn't help that I couldn't do any of the other talents presented to me._

_The first thing in the book is the speech I wrote for Coral, at the Victory Tour. That's what I'm famous for isn't it, well, along with my looks._

_The 'beautiful' speech that I wrote for a friend._

_Then there are the poems I wrote for my talent. There aren't many, about ten, all about meaningless things. The sun rising in the morning, the way the sea crashes against the rocks, nothing of importance, and nothing that could've gotten me into trouble._

_Poems about the arena. About death, but more importantly about murder, something I know too much about. Explaining the feeling over and over again, not likening it to anything because there really is nothing like knowing that you've killed people, that the blood will never come off your hands, not matter how hard you scrub._

_And the poems about the Capitol, likening them to parasites, leeches sucking the life out of the Districts. Without us there is no chance they could survive. Our mistake is believing them when they say that we couldn't survive without them._

_And then the subject changes, slowly but surely, back to the sun rising high in the sky, back to the crashing waves, back to the simple pleasures of life, back to the things that never fail to make you smile._

_And flicking through the pages I see another change and I close my eyes and look back to the girl with a smile on her face, running round on the beach as the sun beats down on her and wonder if it could be true. Because the change is so obvious that even a blind man could see it, because the subject changes, and it changes to her. And I don't know how I couldn't have noticed it when I was writing them because there are pages and pages of her. Capturing her laugh and the way she smiles even when she's angry, the corners of her lips tugging up ever so slightly before she finally accepts it and breaks out into a beaming smile that lights up her eyes. Poems capturing her eyes, that are so unpredictable, changing through thousands of shades of green and blue, just like the sea, poems capturing the way she moves, elegant and graceful at time and the exact opposite at others. And poems just about her, her in general, no particular subject, just her._

_And I realise, in that moment, that I have fallen for Annie Cresta and that I have fallen so far that nothing will ever be able to pull me back up._

And by the time you finally find out, it's too late, It becomes too much. It's all you can think about; it consumes you until you can't even remember a time when it wasn't there.

"I love you" I say, finally, hoping that no one can hear me over the noise in the room.

But there is no reply, nothing. Her expression is the only thing that changes, and only slightly, her eyebrows furrowed, lines across her forehead, confused.

"Annie?" I ask, no reply. "Annie what's the matter?" But again she says nothing, does nothing, as if I'm not here or maybe she's not here.

And then someone comes and takes her away from me, leading her to the platform to stand on to go up to the interveiw and Mags come to take me to where I need to go to and I'm left looking back through the crowd, wondering what happened to the girl I love.


	12. Epilogue I

She doesn't talk, not at all.

It's almost as if she's in her own world.

And half of me is happy, because wherever she is it's a better place than the world she lives in, we live in.

And the other half misses her, longs for her, wishes we had had more time.

One night, that's all we had.

One short and seemingly meaningless night now means more to me than any other moment in my life.

And I'm sure that if I tried I could learn to entice her out of this strange world she has escaped to.

But I don't see the point.

She seems happy there, occasionally laughing at the wrong points in the conversation.

And it's enough, those few short seconds of laughter, because that's when I remember what she used to be like. I remember what her eyes looked like when they sparkled and what her lips looked like when they tugged up to form a smile.

And who am I to pull her out of a place where she's happy?

Who am I to decide that she should come back to this dreary world?

She belongs there now and I no longer belong by her side.

And I guess I'll have to learn to accept that.

I look out of the windows of the train as we speed back to District 4.

There will be crowds of people gathered at the train station and Annie will stand there looking confused just like she did in the interview because she can no longer understand our world. She only understands the world that she is now trapped in. And I'll stand to the side of her, a few feet away and look concerned because I'll be worried if she's okay and everyone else will wear the same expression as me and her parents will come rushing through the crowd and they'll tell her lies like "It's all okay", the types of lies that are always told after the Games.

Nothing's ever okay. Ever.

But I don't want to think of the future now.

I don't care what comes next.

Nothing seems to matter anymore.

Mags is sitting across from me in the plush seats, she gave up trying to console me on the loss of Annie hours ago.

Well, it seems like hours, could've been longer.

So I stare out of the window again, trying to forget.

Forgetting always makes it easier.

Forgetting all of the things we did together when we were younger.

Trying to forget the memories that threaten to surface, and there are so many of them.

All of her, when she was happy, when she was adventurous and when her smile could light up my world better than the sun.

Because forgetting your problems is so much easier than dealing with them.


	13. Epilogue II

Epilogue

Two Weeks Later

I knock on the door.

Mrs Cresta opens it and smiles.

"Good morning Finnick. How are you?"

"I'm fine Mrs Cresta. How are you?"

"I'm, I'm recovering. And you know that you don't have to call me Mrs Cresta." She says.

"Okay Mrs Cresta." I reply. There is a smile on her face but I don't know if it is just because she is always smiling.

"Who is it, love?" I hear Mr Cresta call.

"It's Finnick Odair, you know, Annie's friend." She calls to him.

Mr Cresta arrives in the doorway. Just like his wife he has a smile plastered on his face. "Morning Master Odair. Have you come to take my beautiful daughter from me?" he asks in his booming voice.

"Is she better?" I ask expectantly.

Mr Cresta looks momentarily angry before he just smiles sadly at me and says "I'm afraid, in your terms, she'll never be better Finnick."

"Oh, well, I just came to drop off these books." I say holding out the stack of books that Annie left at my house before the games. Mrs Cresta takes them and thanks me.

I thank her before turning to leave. I feel a hand gripping my wrist. I turn round to see Mrs Cresta holding it tightly.

"Don't leave her now Finnick." She says "Not when she needs you most."

I remove my hand from her grip and realise that she's right. Annie is still Annie. And now she needs me like I needed her after my time in the arena.

"Actually Mr Cresta, you wouldn't mind if I took your daughter off your hands for a few short hours would you?"

"Of course not. I'll just get her."

* * *

We're on the beach, the one near my old house. I'm sitting next to her, looking over the sea and at the sun that hangs low in the distance.

There has been little conversation. Mostly Annie just looks out at the sea and the few times that I have managed to get her to talk she has been pulled back into her dream world seconds later.

I don't mind really. I'll wait for her. It's a promise I have made to myself. I'll wait for her to come back, no matter how long it takes.

"Finnick?" I hear.

"I'm here Annie."

I turn to face her. She looks greatly disorientated.

I smile. "I'll always be here for you." I tell her before pulling her into a hug.

And then I say two words that have been used all too often between us.

"I promise."


	14. AN

**A/N**

**Hey, so I just thought I'd take some time to thank everyone since I didn't leave notes on each individual chapter.**

**I guess the person I need to thank most is MissBunburyHope for commenting and just being genuinely amazing.**

**Then there's the followers Andromeda2000, Cresta83, F. Ferret, Flinx-ikariluv10, Red-HeadNinja1524, joanne of arc and shadowhunterprincess.  
**

**And the favouriters Blue Rose Diablo 666 and maggi123.**

**This is just to say Thanks and I love you all more than you can even imagine.**

**Don't stop being brilliant.**

**P.S I kinda rushed the ending, am I forgiven?**


End file.
